Mary was the one who broke the silence. “Mr. Tremont, you really have come back!”
It was the last confirmation Arianne needed to know that the man standing in front of her was real.
It’s been a long, long time.
She rushed forward and dove into the chest of the man she thought about in the day and dreamed about at night. She was acutely aware of how feeble and emaciated his body had become compared to the sturdy frame she remembered. He had stumbled a bit from the impact, but at the last step, he stood steady and locked his arms around her into a tight, unyielding embrace.
Unfortunately, Arianne’s force was a little too much for his chest, and soon, his yet-fully-recovered lungs began to protest with a fit of coughs.
Arianne refused to let go. “Where have you been? Why have you only come back now? I thought… I thought you were dead! I thought you were never coming back. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to… to go through the motion over these few cursed months?”
Mark ruffled her hair gently and increased the force of his hug. “It’s alright. It’s over. I’m home. I’m never going away again.”
Smore was whining for his father to hug him too, so Ariane released herself from the embrace with tears in her eyes and shoved the toddler to him. “Smore… Smore has been crying for his Daddy… for so long. Finally, t-today’s the day… when his wish c-came true…”
Mark gazed at Smore with a soft glow in his eyes. “Daddy’s home, sweetie. He’s never gonna leave you again.”
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